Tunde Sulaiman
15 November 2009
Lagos — In a very candid assessment of themselves, some members of the Super Eagles have admitted that they are not yet South Africa 2010 material even though they have booked their place at the World Cup finals. Speaking Saturday evening after their laboured qualification finally bore fruit with a hard fought 3-2 win over the Harambee Stars, the players frankly confessed that they had not yet reached the heights they are aware they are capable of.
Clearly relieved and delighted to have final put away the South Africa 2010 ticket in their pockets, the players agreed that they were very lucky to have survived the Kenya challenge."Yes we won, but the truth is that we did not particularly play too well. But at least we qualified which is the most important thing," said one of the players Saturday night.
The players who can not be mentioned to protect them from possible backlash from the football establishment, however, while admitting they were below par, also put some of the blames on the doorsteps of Coach Shaibu Amodu.
According to them, the former BCC Lions handler should be held responsible for some faulty selections and failure to respond promptly once he sees things are not going according to plans.
"For instance today (Saturday) it was obvious that the pairing of Yakubu Aiyegbeni and Michael Eneramo was not working and yet he persisted with them the whole of the first half before making changes in the second. I felt he should have reacted faster, once he saw that the combination was not working he should have acted quicker - maybe as early as 15 minutes into the match." Another player did not as much fault Amodu's tactical ability but rather his seeming fondness for some players who are obviously not delivering. "Not all players who are good at club level become good national team players, and the sooner the coach (Amodu) realises this the better for the Eagles," said one of the players who plays in the midfield.
But still keeping the spotlight on themselves, another of the players said the team needed re-enforcements in a number of key areas all throughout the squad. "I believe we need to find more quality players right from the goalkeeping to the attack. Its not as if all of us are not good but every team has room for improvement which can only be achieved through the discovery of fresh players. It's a difficult task, but it is one the coach (Amodu) will have to do if he is too raise a formidable team.
"It won't do us any good to go to the World Cup just to make up the numbers, we should go there to compete and the only way we can do this is by assembling a strong team," said the player.
After surviving a severe test of both their mental and physical strength in the first half of the game in Nairobi, the Eagles were able to turn it round in the second half coming from a goal down to win 3-2 and thus snatch the South Africa 2010 ticket.
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